ascorbic acid - a water soluble vitamin, C6H8O6, occurring in citrus fruits, green vegetables, etc., essential
for normal metabolism: used in the prevention
and treatment of scurvy: Also called vitamin C

HOW MUCH IS ENOUGH?

By Patrick Holford

Most Animals
Produce The
Equivalent
Of 3 to 15
Grams of
Vitamin C
Every Day

Vitamin C isn't a vitamin at all. It isn't a
necessary component of diet, at least for all mammals with the exception of guinea pigs,
fruit eating bats, the red vented bulbul bird and primates - which includes us. All other
species make their own.

This they do by converting glucuronic acid derived from glucose into ascorbic acid (C6H8O6). Three enzymes
are required to make this conversion. One of these enzymes, or part of the enzyme system, is missing in
primates. Irwin Stone proposed, in 1965, that a negative mutation may have occurred in these species so as to
lose the ability to produce vitamin C. In primates this is thought to have occurred in the region of 25 million
years ago.

Mutations can and frequently do occur in nature. Only those that put a species at advantage at the time
tend to become dominant. Unfortunately, reversing such mutations is highly unlikely to occur. Unlike other
vitamins, vitamin C is required in large amounts which could only be supplied by a tropical diet high in fruit
and other vegetation. if sufficient vitamin
C could be obtained from such a diet the quantity of glucose normally used to synthesize vitamin C could be
channeled towards energy production. This could conceivably have been an advantage for primates or other
species.

This advantage may have come at a price. Dr. Jungblut, an early pioneer of vitamin C therapy in the 1930's,
discovered that only us primates and guinea pigs were susceptible to scurvy as well as anaphylactic shock,
pulmonary tuberculosis, diptheritic intoxication, a poliomyelitis-like viral infection and a viral form of
leukemia. None of the vitamin C synthesizing laboratory animals had susceptibility to these diseases. This is
perhaps one of the first observations that led to the idea that susceptibility to viral infections could be a
consequence of vitamin C deficiency. Could humanity's history of disease - endemic infections, plagues and
more recently cancer and heart disease - be the result of our inability to produce vitamin C and our inability to
obtain it from the food we eat?

Vitamin C produced per day by different animal species (equivalent for 70 Kg Man)

Goat

2,280 - 13,300 mg

Rat

2,737 - 13,902 mg

Rabbit

1,547 - 15,820 mg

Cow

1,099 - 1,281 mg

Mouse

2,352 - 19,250 mg

Sheep

1,736 mg

Cat

336 - 2,800 mg

More than 50%
of People Require
Over
2,500 mg to
Reach
Maximum
Absorption

Vitamin C is
One of the
Least Toxic
Substances
Known to Man

The fact that almost all species continue to make vitamin C suggests that the amount of vitamin C generally
available from diet is not enough for optimum nutrition except in exceptional circumstances such as a tropical
environment. The chart above shows the average amount produced by each animal, adjusted to an equivalent
body weight for Man. Under normal circumstances the daily amount produced, adjusted for comparison to a 70
kg man, is somewhere between 3,000 mg and 15,000 mg, with an average of 5,400 mg.

Species of monkeys, such as the squirrel monkey, require an equivalent of 2,000 mg a day to maintain
health and up to 1000 mg a day to maintain blood levels found in the wild. Animals produce variable
amounts depending on their circumstances. Under conditions of stress or infection synthesis can easily
quadruple. Some primates appear to require up to 2,800 mg a day equivalent to survive the long-term stresses
of captivity, while guinea pigs require 3,000 mg per day to recover from anesthesia.

What about us? While a mere 60 mg a day can prevent scurvy, the deficiency disease first identified by
Dr. James Lind in 1753, it would be illogical to assume that this is the optimal dose. A survey of doctors in
the US found that those who were healthiest consumed at least 250 mg of vitamin C per day. A recent survey
has shown that a person's vitamin status is a good predictor of their mortality risk. High blood vitamin C
levels indicate a low risk for cardiovascular disease and certain types of cancer and other immune based
diseases. Optimal intakes to reduce risk of such conditions would appear to be at least 500 mg per day.

Expensive Urine?

But aren't you simply making expensive urine when you take large
amounts of supplements?
Dr. Michael Colgan investigated this often made rebuttal. He investigated how much vitamin C
we use by giving increasing daily doses and measuring excretion. "Only a quarter of our subjects
reached their vitamin C maximum at 1,500 mg a day. More than half required over 2,500 mg a
day to reach a level where their bodies could use no more. Four subjects did not reach their
maximum at 5,000 mg." Increasing vitamin C intake from 50 mg to 500 mg tends to double serum
vitamin C levels. Increasing intake to 5,000 mg a day will double serum levels again. Expensive
urine? Vitamin C protects the bowel, kidneys and bladder on the way out. As Dr. Michael Colgan
points out the average victim of bowel or bladder cancer spends $26,000 for treatment - mostly to
no avail.

While it is valid to infer from this brief history of evolution, a comparison with other species, and
average excretion rates that optimal vitamin C levels are probably above 1,000 mg with plenty of
room for individual variation,what about 'hard evidence'? What levels are required to ensure
maximum function of enzymes and body systems dependent on vitamin C? A quick review of some
of vitamin C's hundreds of biochemical roles will help us here. Vitamin C is required for the
synthesis of collagen. Our intercellular glue that keeps skin, lungs, arteries, the digestive tract
and all organs intact. It is a potent anti-oxidant protecting against free radicals, pollution,
carcinogens, heavy metals, and other toxins. It is strongly anti-viral and mildly anti-bacterial.
Energy cannot be made in any cell, brain or muscle without adequate vitamin C. The adrenal
glands have a high concentration of vitamin C which is essential for stress hormone synthesis.
Vitamin C is so central in so many chemical reactions in the body that,without it, life is simply
not possible.

Are Western Killer Diseases Symptoms of a Vitamin C Deficiency?

The immune system depends on having healthy immune cells and associate molecules such as
antibodies. Vitamin C is essential for both. Antibody production increases on supplementing 1
gram of vitamin C. It is also needed for interferon, complement, and prostaglandin production,
and is essential for the proper function of immune cells such as lymphocytes and
leukocytes. A recent study showed, in the test tube, that vitamin C can even inactivate the HIV virus.

Thanks to the work of Linus Pauling and coworkers we know that 10 grams of vitamin C doubles the life expectancy of
cancer patients, and, in some cases effects a complete cure. Its role is even more pivotal in cardiovascular disease,
which is now being postulated as the long-term consequence of vitamin C deficiency. Just about every marker of
cardiovascular disease, arterial damage, high blood cholesterol levels, low HDL levels, high levels of oxidized
cholesterol, thick blood are all improved by adequate vitamin C intake at levels up to 10 grams a day.
Vitamin C increases resistance to stress, lessens allergic reactions, helps arthritic conditions, slows down the aging
process and improves energy production. Beneficial effects of vitamin C in human trials tend to increase with the
amount given up to, and above, 10 grams per day. On the basis of research into vitamin C's effect on disease states it
would appear that an intake of somewhere between 1 and 10 grams may be optimal simply for maintaining optimal
function of the immune, endocrine and cardiovascular system.

How Much Is Too Much?

Dr. Robert Cathcart believes the ideal intake for any individual is the highest
level they can tolerate without loose bowels. On the basis of his experience
with 11,000 patients over 14 years this bowel tolerance level may be 10 to 15 grams in a healthy person, 30 to 60 grams
in a person with a cold, and over 199 grams per day in a person with a serious infectious illness. During an infectious
illness the best clinical results have been achieved by maintaining high vitamin C levels in the blood through 3 or more
grams every four hours.

Fortunately, vitamin C is one of the least toxic substances known to man. Four
studies gave 10 grams of vitamin C to over 3000 patients without a single reported
incidence of toxicity. Other than the bowels there has not been one single case of
toxicity resulting from taking vitamin C supplements, despite unfounded reports of
potential risk for kidney stones, raising blood uric acid levels, or 'rebound' scurvy. It
is unlikely that any vitamin has been tested to such an extent for toxicity and it is safe
to assume that supplemental levels of at least 10 grams a day, or up to bowel
tolerance, are completely safe.

WHAT IS OPTIMUM

Whichever way you look at it the figures come out in the same ballpark. The optimum intake is likely to be in the region of 1,000 mg (1 gram) to 10,000 mg (10 grams) per day, If you are in the grips of cardiovascular disease, an infectious or immune system disease, or cancer the ideal level may be much higher. If you drink excessive amounts of alcohol, live in a polluted city, have a stressful lifestyle, take drugs including aspirin, or smoke, your optimal intake will again be raised. An intake of 200 to 300 mg of vitamin C per day is required to raise the average smoker's vitamin C level to that of a non-smoker. An intake of around 50 mg per cigarette probably affords maximum protection.

If we reset the dials in our Time Machine and
travel to a point about 450 million years ago, we may be able
to witness the start of another notable experiment by Nature.
In the seas are the beginnings of the vertebrates, a long line
of animals that will eventually evolve into the mammals and man.
These are the animals with a more or less rigid backbone, containing
the start of a well-organized and complex nervous and muscular
system, and capable of reacting much more efficiently to their
environment than the swarms of simpler, spineless invertebrates,
which had apparently reached the end of their evolutionary rope.
Nature was ready to embark on another revolutionary, and more
complicated, experiment.

Because of the increased complexity of their
nervous system and a fast-acting muscular system, these primitive
vertebrate fishes were able to gather food better and avoid enemies
and other perils, all of which had increased survival value. Before
they could do this, however, they had to develop complex, specialized
organ systems in which various biochemical processes were carried
out. And their requirements for ascorbic acid were undoubtedly
much higher because of their much increased activity. The simpler
structures of the invertebrates no longer sufficed and required
much modification to suit the needs of these more active and alert
upstarts, the vertebrates.

The vertebrate fishes were such a successful
evolutionary experiment that for the next 100 million years or
so they dominated the waters. Nature was now ready to carry out
another experiment -- that of taking the animals out of the crowded
seas and putting them on dry land. It had experience in this sort
of operation since the plants had long ago left the seas and were
well established on land. The land was no longer a place of barren
fields, but was covered with dense vegetation. Two lines of modification
were tried: in one, the fish was structurally modified so that
it could clumsily exist out of the water; in the other, a more
complete renovation job was done. Modifications of the fins and
the swim bladder ended in the evolutionary blind alley of the
lung fishes, but the more ambitious program -- involving a complete
change in the biochemistry and life cycle -- produced a more successful
line -- the amphibians. These creatures are born in the water
and spend their early life there and then they metamorphose into
land-living forms. Frogs and salamanders are present-day denizens
of this group. The next step in evolution was to produce wholly
land-living animals -- the reptiles. These were scaly animals
that slithered, crawled, walked, or ran; and some grew to prodigious
size. Some preferred swimming and reverted to the water and others
took to the air. It was these airborne species that eventually
evolved into the warm-blooded birds. The birds are of particular
interest to us because they solved an ascorbic acid problem in
the same fashion as the primitive mammals, which were appearing
on the scene at about this time.

We have gone into this cursory sketch of this
period of evolutionary history to trace the possible history of
ascorbic acid in these ancient animals. If we assume that the
present-day representatives of the amphibians, the reptiles, the
birds, and the mammals have the same biochemical systems as their
remote ancestors, then we can do some more detective work on our
elusive molecule. These complex vertebrates all have well-defined
organ systems that are assigned certain definite functions. Usually
an organ has a main biological function and also many other accessory,
but no less important, biochemical responsibilities. The kidney,
whose main function is that of selective filtration and excretion,
is also the repository of enzyme systems for the production of
vitally important chemicals needed by the body. The liver,
the largest organ of the body, functions mainly to neutralize
poisons, produce bile, and act as a storage depot for carbohydrate
reserves; but it also has many other duties to perform.

In examining present-day creatures we find
that in the fishes, amphibians, and reptiles, the place where
ascorbic acid is produced in the body is localized in the kidney.
When we investigate the higher vertebrates, the mammals, we find
that the liver is the production site and the kidneys are inactive.
Apparently, during the course of evolution the production of enzymes
for the synthesis of ascorbic acid was shifted from the small,
biochemically crowded kidneys to the more ample space of the liver.
This shift was the evolutionary response to the needs of the more
highly developed species for greater supplies of this vital substance.

The birds are of particular interest because
they illustrate this transition. In the older orders of the birds,
such as the chickens, pigeons, and owls, the enzymes for synthesizing
ascorbic acid are in the kidneys. In the more recently evolved
species, such as the mynas and song birds, both the kidneys and
the liver are sites of synthesis; and in other species only the
liver is active and the kidneys are no longer involved in the
manufacture of ascorbic acid. Thus we have a panoramic picture
of this evolutionary change in the birds, where the process has
been "frozen" in their physiology for millions of years.

This evolutionary shift from the kidneys to
the liver took place at a time when temperature regulatory mechanisms
were evolving and warm-blooded animals were developing from the
previous cold-blooded vertebrates. In the cold-blooded amphibians
and reptiles, the amounts of ascorbic acid that were produced
in their small kidneys sufficed for their needs. However, as soon
as temperature regulatory means were evolved -- producing the
highly active, warm-blooded mammals -- the biochemically crowded
kidneys could no longer supply ascorbic acid in ample quantities.
Both the birds and the mammals, the two concurrently evolving
lines of vertebrates, independently arrived at the same solution
to their physiological problem: the shift to the liver.

MEGASCORBATE THERAPIES: Vitamin C in Medicine: Vol 1, 1

By Frederick Robert Klenner

Original version: Journal of Preventive Medicine.
Spring, 1974.

The killing power of ascorbic
acid on virus bodies has been demonstrated by me in hundreds of
cases, many of which were treated in our hospital with nothing
but vitamin C. We have published some 28 papers on this matter.

INTRODUCTION

The American Medical Associationin its introduction
to Nostrums, Quackery and Pseudo-Medicine states: " In
from 80 to 85 percent of all cases of human ailment, it is probable
that the individual will get well whether he does something for
his indisposition or does nothing for it. The healing power of
nature, fortunately for biologic perpetuity, works that way."
These percentages are relative. Increased population and greater
concentration in terms of living patterns, as well as other types
of insult to the body, will frequently change this index. As physicians
we have a duty to get the patient well, irrespective of his chance
for self-healing with diet or herbs. Hippocrates once declared.
"Of several remedies physicians should choose the least sensational."
Vitamin C would seem to meet this requirement.

THE VIRUS STORY

The common cold has received renewed interest since
publication of Pauling's book [I]. Brody, [2] in 1953, after studying
vitamin C and its effect on colds in college students,
advised that ascorbic acid be given early and often and in sufficient
amounts. This confirmed what we had been experiencing and reporting
over a period of several years. The response that we observed
with massive and frequent doses of ascorbic acid in treating the
common cold alerted us to the real significance of this treatment
in preventive medicine. In February 1948, [3] I published my first
paper on the use of massive doses of vitamin C in treating virus
pathology. By February 1960, [4] some 25 scientific papers later,
I realized that every head cold must be considered as a probable
source of brain pathology. Many have died, especially children,
following the sudden development of cerebral manifestations secondary
to even a slight head and/or chest cold. These insidious cerebral
happenings are responsible for the so-called crib deaths attributed
to suffocation. They die by suffocation, but by way of a syndrome
similar to that found in cephalic tetanus toxemia culminating
in diaphragmatic spasm, with dyspnea and finally asphyxia. These
infants and children who have been put to bed apparently well,
except for an insignificant nasal congestion will demonstrate
bilateral pneumonitis at autopsy. Adequate vitamin C, taken daily,
will eliminate this syndrome. A similar pathology, dubbed Crib
Syndrome, is less acute but unless recognized and treated heroically,
the infant will also die. This condition is probably due to severe
brain trauma received at time of delivery. Laryngismus
stridulous will be present in this condition and the child will
sound as if it has a cold. Calcium gluconate and massive, frequent
injections of vitamin C will also reverse this pathology. The
recognized treatment is daily oral dihydrotachysterol. Adequate
ascorbic acid taken during the period of gestation will also prevent
the occurrence of this syndrome.

The information relative to crib syndrome is backed
by case histories at Annie Penn Memorial Hospital, Reidsville,
N.C. I have seen children dead in lessthan two hours after
hospital admission, having received no treatment, simply because
the attending physicians were not impressed with their illness.
A few grams of ascorbic acid, given by needle, while they waited
for laboratory procedures or examination to fit their schedule,
could have saved their lives. I know this to be a fact because
I havebeen in similar situations and by routinely employing
ascorbic acid have seen death take a holiday. In a paper
titled "An Insidious Virus," [5] I reasoned that it
should be a maxim of medicine for large doses of vitamin
C to be given in all pathological conditions while the physician
ponders his diagnosis. The wisdom of this dictum is backed by
many hundreds of cases under our supervision. I have seen critically
ill chest patients well enough to go home after intravenous injection
of 1 or 2 liters of 5 percent dextrose in water, each carrying
50 gm ascorbic acid. This procedure resulted in a dramatic transition
from sickness to health.

Virus encephalitis can also be associated with the
common cold as a result of the presence of herpes simplex
in cold sores. Lerner [6] and associates believe that thousands
of cases exist yearly from this route. Of this number, they estimate
that one third die: and of the survivors, eight out of nine have
residual brain damage. Their work suggeststhat passive
hemagluting antibodies in the cerebrospinal fluid are a better
indicator of the presence of infectious virus than are circulating
antibody titers in the serum. The simple herpes virus from the
insignificant feverblister, but possessing the capability
of producing encephalitis can remain hidden for years in the neuron
according to Drs. Stephens and Cook [7]. This confirms the thinking
of Goodpasture [8] given to us many years ago. Thus, a herpes
simplex virus once present in a cold sore, although healed and
leaving no evidence of lip pathology, could ignite later by simple
exposure to ultraviolet light. How many mothers are endangering
the lives of their children by sunbathing, laboring under the
belief that they are improving their health". Roizman [9] believes
that all children are infected by age 5, but that only 1 percent
experience true clinical illness. For many years investigators
thought that each recurrence of fever blisters represented a new
infection. Evidence is accumulating that shows the herpes simplex
virus is harbored in dormant form until a physiological or emotional
event provokes the virus to produce the typical herpetic lesion.
In one case with five repeats of herpes virus erupting at yearly
intervals and at the same site, 7- 10 gm ascorbic acid by mouth,
daily, was found to eliminate this pathology.

Effecting a cure when a virus is the offending agent,
and many times bringing about this change in the short space of
24 hours, is a rewarding moment in medicine. Vitamin C treatment
must be intensive to be successful. Use veins when practical,
otherwise give vitamin C intramuscularly. Never give less than
350 mg/kg body weight. This must be repeated every hour for 6
to 12 times, depending upon clinical improvement, then every two
to four hours until the patient has recovered. Ice cubes held
to the gluteal muscle before and after injection will reduce or
eliminate pain and induration. When treatment continues for several
days, the child can be placed on an ice cap between injections.
When employing vitamin C intravenously, it is best to use sodium
ascorbate and the solution free of all additives except sodium
bisulfite. The dose of vitamin C using a syringe should range
between 350 mg and 400 mg/kg body weight. In older patients or
when very high doses are required the vitamin can be added to
5 percent dextrose in water, in saline solution or in Ringer's
solution. The concentration should be approximately 1 gm to 18
cc fluid. Bottle injections will need 1 gm calcium gluconate one
to two times each day to replace calcium ions removed by the high
intravenous schedule. One quart of milk daily will suffice when
using the vitamin intramuscularly. In place of milk one can substitute
calcium gluconate tablets. Supplemental vitamin C is always given
by mouth. As a guide in determining the amount and frequency of
injections we recommend our Silver Nitrate-Urine test [10]. This
is done by placing ten drops of 5 percent silver nitrate in a
Wasserman tube and adding ten drops urine. A color pattern will
develop showing white, beige, smoke gray or one that looks like
fine grain charcoal. Charcoal is the color needed and the test
is performed at least every four hours. The test itself is read
in one minute. These large doses of ascorbic acid will also bring
all body tissue back to saturation which means that the white
blood cells will now be capable of destroying other pathogens
that might be clouding the picture. Unless the white blood cells
are saturated with ascorbic acid, they are like soldiers without
bullets. Research on this is now under way at the Bowman Gray
School of Medicine by McCall and Cooper [11]. White cells ingest
bacteria and in the process produce hydrogen peroxide. Hydrogen
peroxide will combine with ascorbic acid to produce a substance
which is lethal to bacteria. I have seen diphtheria, hemolytic
streptococcus and staphylococcus infections clear with within
hours following injections of ascorbic acid in a dose range of
from 500 mg to 700 mg/kg body weight given intravenously and run
in through a 20G needle as fast as the patients cardiovascular
system will allow.

Part of the white cells are lymphocytes. They, too,
play an important role in survival from infection. We found in
several cases of trichinosis [12] that the behavior of the lymphocytes
was the real story of the changing blood picture and actually
determined the course of the disease. Wintrobe [13] observed that
the function of the lymphocytes was stimulation of antibody formation
and that the lymphocytic response runs parallel with the recovery
of the patient. This build-up of antibodies appears directly proportional
to the concentration of ascorbic acid in all body tissue, and
yet we give vaccines but pay no attention to the degree of tissue
saturation of ascorbic acid. Dr. Nossal [14] of the Institute
of Medical Research, Melbourne, Australia, wonders about the mechanism
by which lymphocytes, on meeting antigens, decide to be turned
on or off. He asks what physiological mechanism underlies the
discrimination between immunization and the induction of immunological
tolerance? We would suggest that it is controlled by vitamin C
which in turn affects the negative charge which then influences
the response of the lymphocyte. Ginter [15] of the Research Institute
of Human Nutrition, Bratislava, offers some evidence to this effect
in his statement: "that all reactions which are connected
with vitamin C have oxidation-reduction features. It is therefore
probable that the biological function of vitamin C can be located
in the metabolic reactions which are connected with electron transfer."

The killing power of ascorbic acid is not limited
to just herpes simplex and the adenovirus. When proper amounts
are used it will destroy all virus organisms. We found measles
to be a medical curiosity. Specifically we observe that vitamin
C prophylactically, by mouth, was not protective unless 1 gram
was given every two hours around the clock. One gram every four
hours would modify the attack. One gram given every four hours
intramuscularly was also protective. With our own children we
kept the measle syndrome going off and on for 30 days by giving
1gm every two hours for two days, then off for two days. The disease
was then stopped by continuing 1 gm every two hours, by
mouth, for four days. By 1950 we learned that we could kill the
measles virus in 24 hours by giving intramuscular injections in
a dose range of 350 mg/kg body weight every 2 hours. We
also found that we could dry up chicken pox in the same time,
but more dramatic results were obtained by giving 400 mg/kg body
weight intravenously. Two to three injections in 24 hours were
all that was required. We published these results in 1951 [16].
Recently, we cured a man weighing 85 kg in four days taking
30 gm each day by mouth. In conclusion, the killing power of ascorbic
acid on virus bodies has been demonstrated by me in hundreds of
cases, many of which were treated in our hospital with nothing
but vitamin C. We have published some 28 papers on this matter.

In certain individuals some virus conditions have
a slower response. Herpes zoster and mumps belong to this group.
We found that in these conditions equally rapid destruction of
the virus could be effected through the use of adenosine-5-monophosphate.
Adenosine was given according to age and weight, 25 mg in children
and 50-100 mg intramuscularly in adults. This was given every
12 hours along with ascorbic acid. Adenosine will sometimes precipitate
a mild reaction in that the patient will feel a fullness in his
or her head with varying degrees of nausea. Inhalation of aromatic
spirits of ammonia will quickly relieve and, if used before injection,
will prevent this condition. Their response, when adenosine was
administered, led us theorize that when a cell has been invaded
by a foreign substance, like virus nucleic acid, enzymatic action
fostered by ascorbic acid contributes to the breakdown of virus
nucleic acid to adenosine dearminase which converts adenosine
to inosine. Some individuals cannot manufacture sufficient adenosine
to cope with this phase of purine metabolism under certain stress
conditions associated with virus pathology. The net result from
this chemical action is to catabolize purines rendering them unavailable
for making additional virus nucleic acid. Ascorbic acid is further
unique in that it possesses the capability of entering all cells.
After entering a virus infected cell, ascorbic acid proceeds to
take up the protein coats being manufactured by the virus nucleic
acid, thus preventing the assembly of new virus units. These newly
made macromolecules within the host cell soon create a situation
where the tensile strength of the cell membrane is exceeded with
resulting rupture and cell death. Ascorbic acid, when given in
the massive amounts that accomplish full tissue saturation, will
also enter those cells harboring the so-called dormant virus.
Where the vitamin C removes the protective protein coat of the
virus the macromolecule formed will act in the capacity of a repressor
factor inhibiting further activity of the virus nucleic acid which
is then destroyed by additional vitamin C. We offer as proof of
this the instance of a patient having herpetic lesions for five
years and being cured with continuous high daily intake of ascorbic
acid. In acute virus infection, associated with a virusemia, ascorbic
acid given intravenously will remove the protein protective coat
from the virus body, leaving the denuded virus unit vulnerable
to the leukocytes for destruction. Note that adrenal cortex extract
and/or desoxycorticosterone acetate must also be considered for
support of the adrenals in a debilitated patient.

In a paper
titled "An Insidious Virus," [5] I reasoned that it
should be a maxim of medicine for large doses of vitamin
C to be given in all pathological conditions while the physician
ponders his diagnosis. The wisdom of this dictum is backed by
many hundreds of cases under our supervision.

THE CHOLESTEROL STORY

Next in importance to the virus is the story of cholesterol.
One must understand as noted by Ginter [17], that acute scurvy
and chronic hypovitaminosis C are metabolically different conditions.
On this point the Food and Life Yearbook, 1939, U.S. Department
or Agriculture, had this to say: "Even when there is not
a single outward symptom of trouble, a person may be in a state
of vitamin C deficiency more dangerous than scurvy itself. When
such a condition is not detected, and continues uncorrected, the
teeth and bones will be damaged, and what may be even more serious,
the blood stream is weakened to the point where it can no longer
resist or fight infections not so easily cured as scurvy."

Working with guinea pigs many research groups have
proved that acute avitaminosis C produces an increase in cholesterol
concentration in the whole body. This increased concentration
of whole body cholesterol in scorbutic guinea pigs can be caused
by increased biosynthesis or by slowed down cholesterol metabolism.
The main pathway of cholesterol catabolism is in conversion to
bile salts. The stimulating effect of ascorbic acid on the oxidation
of polyunsaturated fatty acids and decreased oxidation of linolenic
acid in the tissues of scorbutic guinea pigs has been well documented.
Mjasnikova [18] found that intravenous injections of high doses
of ascorbic acid to patients with high level blood cholesterol
is followed by a distinct decrease of cholesterolemia. It must
be remembered that the referred high doses of vitamin C employed
by other scientists do not approach the dose schedule that we
recommend. For example, Tjapina [19] reported on the effect of
intravenous doses of 500 mg ascorbic acid on cholesterolemia in
patients suffering from atherosclerosis. The hypocholesterolemic
effect from vitamin C was apparent within one hour. With
continued daily injections of 500 mg there was continued
drop in blood cholesterol. Spittle [20] showed that blood cholesterol
levels in humans vary by the amount of vitamin C employed.
In our own experience we lowered the blood cholesterol
in one patient 42 points in 6 weeks by increasing the vitamin
C intake by mouth from 10 gm to 20 gm each day. Spittle advanced
the theory that atherosclerosisis a long-term deficiency
or negative balance of vitamin C, which permits cholesterol levels
to build up in the system and results in changes in other fractions
of fats. Ginter [21] also demonstrated that with a high cholesterol
diet, guinea pigs used up all their dietary vitamin C, while
rats and rabbits that manufacture their own vitamin C showed a
gain in ascorbic acid tissue levels. Ginter also showed that experimental
animals given 50 mg vitamin C each day had cholesterol deposits
40 percent lower than animals fed the same diet but given only
5 mg of C daily. In a survey of 1000 school children Ginter et.
al. showed that 97 percent suffered from vitamin C lack during
winter months when C-rich fruits and vegetables were less abundant
[22]. The children also showed corresponding rise in cholesterol.
Czechoslovakian
workers also reported that when guinea pigs are fed a diet deficient
in vitamin C and rich in cholesterol, they frequently develop
gall stones [23]. Small reported to the society of University
Surgeons in New Orleans in 1973 that when gallstones are removed
from patients they are 60-70 % cholesterol [24]. This suggests a
causative factor in human gallstone formation. Reviewing the literature
and summarizing his own studies, Ginter concluded that there is
no doubt daily intake of ascorbic acid in the control of cholesterol
will have a more pronounced effect in those persons already saturated
with vitamin C. Tjapina and many others have reported that when
amounts of ascorbic acid as low as 500 mg each day by needle,
were continued for 60 days, the improved clinical picture in the majority
of the patients was dramatic, especially concerning the manifestations
of coronary artery disease. Willis [25] reported that in scorbutic
guinea pigs fatty deposits on the aorta were formed very quickly,
even without adding cholesterol to the diet. In 1957, Willis [26]
found that when ascorbic acid was given to these scorbutic guinea
pigs, the atherosclerotic lesions were quickly absorbed. Ascorbic
acid is directly associated with the mechanism involved in the
pathogenesis of human atherosclerosis. Duguid [27] found alterations
in ground substance observed in atherosclerosis that
were produced experimentally to be morphologically similar. Electrocardiographic
tracing by Shater [28] on scorbutic animals showed that with prolonged
vitamin C therapy, abnormalities disappeared entirely. Tramler
[24], following the mortality rate for middle aged persons found
a significant drop with improved nutrition with supplemental C.

We must protect our heart from stress. Adequate vitamin
C is one answer. Asahina and Asano [30] of the Toho University
school of Medicine in Tokyo found that the larger the dose of
ascorbic acid given to experimental rats, the longer they survived
in decompression chambers in which the air was made to approximate
that found at elevations of 33,000 feet. When ascorbic acid was
given in amounts representing 14 gm in a human, only half their
animals expired. In humans we have observed that 30 gm in 24 hours
is critical in any acute situation. Had the Japanese doubled their
vitamin C dose they probably would have had no deaths.

THE HEAVY METAL STORY

Heavy metal poisoning is another morbid chapter in
medicine. Lead poisoning comes from many sources: Auto exhaust,
smelter -furnaces and storage battery factories lead the list.
Mercury takes second place. It is estimated that at least 1 million
children in the U.S. have some degrees of lead poisoning. In 1964
Mokranjac and Petrovic [31] studied the effect of mercury chloride
in guinea pigs when ascorbic acid was administered in different
ways. They first gave each animal 200 mg of vitamin C a day for
one week (this roughly would represent 14 gm in a human) and then
administered a dose of mercury proved before-hand to be 100% fatal.
They continued to give 0.2 gm of vitamin C daily. After 20 days
the animals were all alive proving that vitamin C had protected
them from certain death. If they gave vitamin C before and none
after poisoning, two died. If vitamin C wag given daily after
poisoning, nine of 25 died; and if a single massive shot was given
after poisoning, eight of 25 died. This again confirms that high
daily intake of vitamin C will protect one from manyof
the ills seen today. The same can said for lead poisoning. One
of the more common types of lead poisoning is seen in long-term
workers in lead storage battery plants. All have sub clinical
scurvy. Adequate ascorbic acid intake would eliminate the monthly
blood examination for red cell stippling. The report by Dannenberg
[32] that high doses of ascorbic acid were without effect in treating
lead intoxication in a child must be ignored, since his extremely
high dose was 25 mg mouth four times a day and one single daily
injection of 250 mg of C. Had he administered 350 mg/kg body weight
every two hours, he would have the other side of the coin.

Monoxide poisoning is another killer or crippler.
Persons living in most American cities are frequently exposed
to 100 ppm (that is, 155 mg/cu mm) of carbon monoxide in the ambient
air for varying periods of time and may attain carboxyhemoglobin
blood levels up to 10 percent [33]. Carboxyhemoglobin blood levels
up to 7 percenthave been reported in cigarette smokers.
These levels of carbon monoxide are quite capable of causing considerable
interference with tissue oxygenation in man by displacing oxygen
from the hemoglobin molecule and shifting the oxyhemoglobin dissociation
curve to the left. Anderson [34] reports a definite link between
carbon monoxide, both in the atmosphere and in cigarette smoke,
and cardiac function. Normal coronary arteries can readily dilate
and supply an increased demand; while diseased coronary arteries
(e.g.. angina pectoris) may not be able to meet this challenge.
The hypoxic effect of carbon monoxide may act in a synergistic
manner with other factors operative in ischemic heart disease,
outstripping the limited coronary reserve and augmenting the production
of stress induced myocardial ischemia. Interesting is the report
by Pelletier [35] who has shown experimentally that once you stop
smoking, your ascorbic acid level approaches that of the nonsmoker.
Victims of house fires, especially children, succumb more often
to monoxide poisoning, which is overlooked in the course of treating
the burn. Mayers [36] warns physicians that symptoms of smoke
poisoning might be delayed from 3 to 48 hours. In cases
of this nature ascorbic acid serves a dual purpose. A dose of
500 mg/kg body weight of vitamin C given intravenously will immediately
neutralize the carbon monoxide or smoke poisoning while at the
same time it will prevent blood sludging which is a major factor
in the development of third degree burns.

The potential [of vitamin C] is so great and the
employment so elementary that only the illiterate will continue
to deny its use.

OTHER APPLICATIONS

Other therapeutic effects of vitamin C include the
following. Vitamin C will also destroy pseudamonis locally as
a 3 percent spray and system wide with massive frequent injections.
This has been demonstrated in case histories on burns treated
at Annie Penn Memorial Hospital, Reidsville, N.C. It is a demonstrated
principle that the production of histamine and other end products
from deaminized cell proteins, released by injury to cells, is
a cause of shock. The clinical value of ascorbic acid in combating
shock is explained when we realize that the deaminizing enzymes
from the damaged cells are inhibited by vitamin C. Chambers and
Pollock [37] have reported that mechanical damage to a cell results
in pH changes which reverse the cell enzymes from constructive
to destructive activity. The destructive activity releases histamine,
a major shock-producing substance. Ascorbic acid, when present
in sufficient amounts, inhibits this enzyme transition.

Ascorbic acid will reverse shock found in other areas
of medicine. In one patient who had taken 2640 mg Lotusate (talbutal),
the blood pressure was 60/0 when first seen in the emergency room.
Twelve gm sodium ascorbate was administered with a 50 cc syringe.
In ten minutes the blood pressure was recorded at 100/60. Over
100 additional grams were given intravenously over the following
three hours, at which time the patient was awake. Shock from toxalbumin,
neurotoxin, protcotoxin, muscarine and formic acid responds equally
as well to high doses of vitamin C. Keeping the tissues saturated
will prevent such experiences or make recovery by additional vitamin
C a routine matter.

Blumberg, writing in Medical World News, noted
that the discovery of the Australian antigen raises hopes for
an effective hepatitis vaccine. Many controversial studies have
been reported in the use of this antigen. Another controversial
substance, vitamin C, will cure viral hepatitis in two to four
days and allow the patient to immediately resume his usual activities.
It should be given in a dose range of 500 to 700 mg/kg body weight
every 8 to 12 hours. Our latest case was given 5 gm sodium ascorbate,
as crystals dissolved in 200 cc water or fruit juice, every 4
hours i.e., 30 grams per 24-hour period. All symptoms and signs
were removed in 96 hours. By contrast treating virushepatitis
with an immunizing agent would possibly require several vaccines
ina single hepatic epidemic. If you want results, use
adequate ascorbic acid.

THE CANCER STORY

The question of virus and cancer association is still
academic. Herpes simplex causing cervical cancer appears to be
positive. We have cured many fever blisters by applying a 3 percent
ointment of vitamin C to the lip 10-15 times a day. This is put
in a water soluble base. I think that it is time for those women
with a family history of cervical cancer to douche with a 3 percent
solution of ascorbic acid at the first report of cervical erosion.
Tamponing witha 3 percent solution should also be done
by the physician. Twenty grams of vitamin C daily by mouth along
with local application of vitamin C could erase this form of malignancy.
Virus and breast cancer, which in the mouse has been established,
seems likely to be confirmed in women on the basis of a hereditary
factor along with a virus role. Paul Broca (1866) pointed out
that ten out of 24 women among his immediate forebears had died
of cancer of the breast. J.A. Murray (1911) demonstrated that
mice with familial history of breast cancer developed breast cancer
at an incidence three times that of mice with no familial history
of tumor. Feller and associates found particles resembling type
B and C viruses in eight of 16 human milk specimens from women
with breast cancer but in only one of 43 apparently cancer-free
women. These are stepping stones which serve to give warning that
women from cancer-prone families should not breast feed their
children. What will daily high intake of vitamin C do in altering
the breast cancer picture? The answer is waiting for experimental
work to be done with mice from knowledge gained from Bittnier's
classic cross-suckling experiment.

The role of ascorbic acid in treating virus cancer
pathology can be seen with its action in mononucleosis. Large
doses of vitamin C given intravenously, will eliminate this virus
in just a few days, the actual time being directly proportional
to the amount of the vitamin employed in relation to the severity
of the infection. A research team at Yale, after studying hundreds
of college students, believe they have evidence that associates
the Epstein-Burr virus with Burkett lymphoma [38, 39]. This has
also been confirmed by researchers at Children's Hospital, Philadelphia,
Pa. Many investigators have been working with immunological procedures
for the treatment of malignant disease. As we noted earlier, unless
the patient's tissues are saturated with vitamin C the response
in the area will be negated. Massive employment of vitamin C will
make possible prolonged radiation therapy in late cases.

It will also prevent radiation burns. Who can say what
100 gm or 300 gm given intravenously, daily, for several months
might accomplish in cancer. The potential is so great and the
employment so elementary that only the illiterate will continue
to deny its use. Schlegel [40] has demonstrated that the use of
ascorbic acid as low as 1.5 gm each day will prevent recurrence
of bladder cancer. This is the so-called wasted vitamin C.

OTHER APPLICATIONS

Rous [41] has found that just 3 gm daily, by mouth,
for four days will completely relieve all symptoms of urethritis.
He believes that the urethral irritation is caused by phosphatic
crystals formed in the urine because of insufficient acidity.
Ascorbic acid, in this case, acidified the urine enough to force
the crystals back into solution. The neglected chronic cystitis
which is the rule with ammonical decomposition in the bladder,
most always associated with marked alkalinity of the freshly voided
urine, will cease to be a clinical entity once people take at
least 10 gm vitamin C every day. This will also eliminate the
backwash type pyelitis so debilitating, especially in women of
childbearing age.

In over 300 consecutive obstetrical cases, we found
that the simple stress of pregnancy increase the ascorbic acid
demand up to 15 gm daily. This simple stress of pregnancy becomes
meaningful when we review the work of Conney [42] on mammalian
synthesis of vitamin C in the rat. Compared to a 70 kg individual
the rat would make, under stress, 15.2 gm of C each day. Compare
this to the 100 mg now recommended by the National Academy of
Science and National Research Council and the disparity is shocking.
Fred Stare's 40 mg/day is catastrophic. This must be changed.
There are at least 16 categories, not including scurvy, that
cry out against minimal daily requirements for vitamin C. There
can never exist a situation where a set numerical unit of vitamin
C will meet the needs of all men and women. This is true because
people are different and people experience different situations differently.
Roger J. Williams, speaking before the National Academy of Science
in 1967, reported that among guinea pigs living in his laboratory
some needed 20 times more vitamin C than others to maintain health.
We must accept Ginter's conclusion that acute scurvy and chronic
hypovitamosis C are metabolically different conditions. Antonowicz
and Kodicek (1969), working with guinea pigs discovered an extremely
complex chemical process existing in animals receiving ascorbic
acid which did not occur in animals with scurvy. They found that
glucosamine synthesis with the formation of galactosamine was
normal in those animals receiving vitamin C but did not take place
in those animals with scurvy.

Under a grant from the National Institute of Mental
Health, Hepler and associates, according The Medical Tribune,
reported that marijuana smoking caused a significant decrease
in intraocular pressure. This decrease was found 30 minutes after
smoking. In fine print they conceded that the drop was not
significant after three hours. Thus, one would need to be a chain
link smoker to maintain worthwhile levels [43, 44]. No mention
was made of the many deleterious effects smoking marijuana has
on thehuman body. Virno and associates [45] working in
G. B. Bietti's eye clinic observed a pronounced reduction in intraocular
pressure in the glaucomatous eyes by giving high daily doses of
vitamin C. Bietti states that these high doses of vitamin C are
an effective hypotonic agent for intraocular pressure and when
an intravenous dose calculated at 1 gm/kg body weight is administered,
the action is predominantly by osmotic dehydration of the eyeball.
Virno employed 35 gm by mouth in divided doses each day. This
gave marked reduction of pressure within four hours and this was
maintained even in patients where Diamox and Philocarpone had
failed. Linner in several symposiums using using 0.5 gm twice
daily reported no significant change in eye pressure. Linner used
1 gm and Virno 35 gm each day with 5,000-10,000 units penicillin every
four to six hours. The same type pathology is cured today in 24
to 48 hours using 1-3 million units. The size of the dose does
make a difference, all the difference.

Dr. Linus Pauling has written that "Biochemical
and genetic arguments support the idea that orthomolecular therapy
may be the preferred treatment for many ill patients." It
is difficult to understand why megavitamin therapy remains so
controversial when massive doses of vitamin B12 are universally
used in pernicious anemia and niacinamide to correct the pathology
of pellagra. I have used 150,000 -- 200,000 units of vitamin A
in a case of ichthyosis. The patient has been taking this dose
for ten years. His skin is clear with no signs or symptoms of
vitamin A toxicity. During the same time he has taken 10 gmof vitamin C each day. Is vitamin C the answer?

Hoffer[46] and Osmond were probably the first
to realize the value of ascorbic acid as an adjuvant with niacin
in treating schizophrenics. They employed from 6 to 8 gm daily.
One acute case was given 1 gm every hour for 48 hours at which
time the patient was completely recovered and remained so for
six months without further treatment. Hawkins [47] found that
by adding megavitamin treatment he doubled the recovery rate,
halved the rehospitalization rate and virtually eliminated self-destruction
in dealings with schizophrenics who have a suicide rate 22 times
that of the general population. Dr. Pauling enabled his clinic
to treat seriously ill schizophrenics for $200 per patient per
year and to reduce the number of patient visits from 150 per year
to 15. Hawkins' method gives schizophrenic patients four gm ascorbic
acid and four gm niacin or the equivalent in niancinamide, in
divided doses, each day. Vanderkamp (1966) demonstrated that schizophrenics
burn up ascorbic acid ten times faster than normal people. On
an intake of four gm vitamin C each day, almost 100 percent of
normal people will spill some degree of ascorbic acid into the
urine. In schizophrenics one can often go as high as 40 grams/day
before spilling occurs. I have observed this same picture in severe
virus infections where the patient did not spill over into the
urine until the second or third day, when a clinical response
was evident. Milmer in Great Britain and Lucksch in Germany have
reported significant improvement in schizophrenics given vitamin
C alone. Both investigators used the double blind approach.

Ascorbic acid has value as an adjuvant in other medical
syndromes. With para-aminobenzoic acid (PABA), which is a fraction
of the B vitamins, it will cure trichinosis in nine days [48].
Used with intravenous mephenesin or methocarbamol, it will cure
tetanus in 96 hours.

Arthritis is not only a crippler but also a nagger.
Aspirin is the favorite medication of many physicians because
it will ease the arthritic pain. This makes aspirin a good guy
and a bad guy. The bad side is that those who take high aspirin
therapy will also have low platelet and plasma levels for vitamin C.
With low plasma levels there will also be depletion in the white
blood cells. We know what this will do. As to platelets, their
main business is to keep people from bleeding to death. When a
blood vessel ruptures, collagen tissue, which makes up the basement
membrane of blood vessels, is exposed. The collagen affects the
platelets so that they release a mineral substance called adenosine
diphosphate. This substance makes the platelets very sticky so
that they cling together. Aspirin can destroy this substance,
but adequate vitamin C will prevent this action. As the platelets
act to seal off the wound, a second mechanism for clot formation
comes into play. This is a liquid protein called fibrinogen. In
a recent case in which the platelet count was abnormally low and
bleeding was a serious problem, 25 gm of ascorbic acid daily by
mouth raised the platelet count back to normal with cessation
of bleeding. Vitamin C is also the number one agent in collagen
formation. A person who will take 10-20 gm of ascorbic acid a
day along with the other nutrients might very well never develop
arthritis.

Abrams and Sandson [49] have pointed out that synovial
fluid becomes thinner, thus allowing easier movement, when serum
levels of ascorbic acid are high. Drugs such as ACTH and cortisone
are noted for their ability to drain ascorbic acid in prolonged
usage. In our experience we found that the patient who took vitamin
C to tolerance made more rapid progress in reversing arthritic
joints.

The importance of daily high intake of ascorbic acid
in preventive medicine has no limits. Crest and Colgate might
limit tooth decay to one cavity every checkup, a relatively high
index. Ten or more gm of ascorbic acid from age 10 up and at least
1 gmfor each year of life, each day, through age 9 will
record no cavities. Our son who is 20 has never had a tooth cavity.
The same schedule could eliminate disc pathology. McCormick believes
the problem is avitaminosis C [50]. Greenwood [51] believes that
adequate amounts of ascorbic acid seem necessary to disc metabolism
and maintenance. In surgery we found that plasma determinations
taken before starting anesthesia at the conclusion of surgery,
and six hours later, were constant. At 12 hours postoperative,
there was a significant drop in vitamin C levels and at 24 hours
there was a dramatic loss of the vitamin. We have always required
the surgeon to give 10 gm before surgery, 10 gm in each postoperative
bottle of fluids and 10 gm by mouth after discontinuing fluids.
Crandon et. al. state that postoperative disruption of abdominal
wounds occurs eight times more often in patients with vitamin
C deficiency. Not only surgery, but any type of wound or fracture
will heal slowly or not heal at all without the benefits of adequate
vitamin C. Powdered vitamin C mixed with water to form a paste
and applied to poison ivy or oak will usually effect a cure in
24 hours where adequate vitamin C is also taken by mouth. Ascorbic
acid does have a definite influence on the rheumatic heart, especially
in the acute stage [52]. I have seen children with the heart impulse
so great that it raised the bed covers with each contraction recover
so completely that later in life they were inducted into the services.
Massive daily doses will also cure tuberculosis by removal of
the organisms' polysaccharide coat. It does the same with pneumococci.
I am convinced that ten or more grams a day prevent cancer of
the lung in tobacco smokers. It will remove prickly heat and prevent
heat stroke. Vitamin C will immediately reverse heat collapse,
cramps or exhaustion if 12 to 40 gm are given intravenously. It
will bring recovery to electric shock victims if sufficient amounts
are administered soon after accident. Lightning victims can also
be saved. I have done it. Chronic myelocytic leukemia responds
dramatically to 30 or more grams daily by mouth. Pancreatitis
can be cured in less three hours with 50 gm intravenously, and
ten gm daily by mouth is positive insurance that it will never
return. Virus pancarditis asa sequela of an adenovirus
infection can be relieved in 36 hours giving 400 mg/kg body weight,
intravenously, every 4 to 6 hours. I have never seen a patient
that vitamin C would not benefit. And too, never send a boy to
do a man's job, meaning the dose level is very important.

In closing, I would like to quote Herbert Spencer,
who summed up rather well a caution I would like all of us to
take to heart: "There is a principle which is a bar against
all information, which is proof against all argument, and which
cannot fail to keep man in everlasting ignorance. That principle
is condemnation without investigation."

I would like to quote Herbert Spencer,
who summed up rather well a caution I would like all of us to
take to heart: "There is a principle which is a bar against
all information, which is proof against all argument, and which
cannot fail to keep man in everlasting ignorance. That principle
is condemnation without investigation."

SUMMARY

The drug evaluation book of the American Medical
Association (1971) gives information on the value of ascorbic
acid which is at least 30 years behind present day knowledge.
The 200-500 mg of ascorbic acid which is recommended asthe
24-hour dose in burn cases is a typical example. Fromclinical experience we know that ascorbic acid must be given
to burn victims in massive, frequent intravenous injections. Thirty
to one hundred grams daily is the proper amount to employ and
this is given until healing takes place - 7-30 days depending
upon the degree of burn. We have found and reported that this
massive vitamin C therapy will eliminate skin grafting by keeping
the tissues oxygenated. Ample supply of oxygen to the tissues
will prevent blood sludging and in place of the third degree burns
that develop onthe fourth or fifth day, the eschars will
drop off leaving normal tissue. These high doses of ascorbic acid
will also remove the smoke poisoning found in many fire victims
and save many lives, especially children who expire from the effects
of monoxide gas. The statement found in the AMA book mentioned
above that controlled studies have shown no benefit from large
doses of ascorbic acid in human subjects - must be ignored. The
large doses referred to never exceeded 5 gm and in most cases
not more than that found in a quart of orange juice, for a 24-hour
period. It is unfortunate that the editorial staff of the AMA
failed to check out the world literature. An example of their
high doses was an article by Dannenberg [32] which was published
in the JAMA in which the author found no value in lead poisoning
by giving extremelyhigh doses of ascorbic acid to a child.
Dannenberg's extremely high dose was 25 mg four times a day, by
mouth, and one single intramuscular injection of 250 mg. Had Dannenberg
employed 350 mg/kg body weight and given it, intramuscularly,
every two to four hours he would have had a recovered patient
in less than 72 hours. The amount of ascorbic acid employed in
any given case is the all important factor. In 28 years of research
we have observed that 30 gm each day is critical in terms of response.
This seems to be true regardless of age and weight. In certain
pathological conditions like barbiturate intoxication, snake bite
or virus encephalitis, higher doses are required in some individuals.
We have observed from experience and from review of the literature
that 15 percent - 20 percent of humans require much more ascorbic
acid than do others. Approximately 15 percent is in evidence when
giving vaccines, since they make no antibodies. Roughly 15 percent
of pregnant humans were scheduled, in the past, to become paralyzed
if hit with the polio virus. Fifteen percent of over 3000 cases
in our files required more ascorbic acid to prevent colds or to
relieve the cold once injected. This percentage difference is
the reason why one patient would die with pneumonia while another
lived, when all other factors were apparently equal. This dosage
factor alone has misled many scientists to disregard the value
of ascorbic acid in virus because they would see dogs die with
distemper when knew that the dog could make his own vitamin C.
What they did not appreciate was that even the animal could not
make enough vitamin C under certain situations. I have cured many
dogs suffering with distemper by giving several grams ascorbic
acid, by needle, every two hours. We also found in over 300 obstetrical
cases that roughly 15 percent require as much as 15 gm supplemental
vitamin C each day just to remain within normal limits. Ten grams
each day was the highest requirement of the 85 percent.

Herpes simplex virus and the adenovirus can be destroyed
with high doses of ascorbic acid. Many infections can be prevented
by taking adequate vitamin C, daily, by mouth - 1 gm for each
year of life up to age 10 and after 10 years of age at least 10
gm vitamin C daily. With these amounts the patient will spill
varying amounts into the urine. The kidneys have a threshold for
vitamin C: much like the spillway, of a dam. Spilling is necessary
to assure adequate amounts for various body tissues. For example,
white blood cells are useless unless they are full of ascorbic
acid since it is the ascorbic acid which makes their phagocytosis
and/or destruction of pathogens possible. Although herpes simplex
usually shows itself as a small lip sore and the adenoviruses
as a mild but lingering cold, both can become killers through
passage of the virus to the brain. Either one can cause crib deaths,
which is truly the real cause. Again, we point out high daily
intake of vitamin C can prevent this tragic incident. For this
reason, if for no other, the National Research Council and the
National Academy of Science must remove the minimal daily requirement
for this substance. Williams has shown and reported to the National
Academy that even guinea pigs living in his laboratory differ
in their requirements for vitamin C and that they differ each
day, sometimes 20 times a given unit. Guinea pigs, like man, cannot
manufacture ascorbic acid due to genetic fault. Scurvy which accounts
for the thinking on the amount of vitamin C needed is actually
of no consequence in avitaminosis C, which can determine one's
future existence. Ginter, after ten years of research with vitamin
C, concluded that acute scurvy and chronic hypovitaminosis C are
metabolically different conditions. Antonowicz and Kodick confirmed
this by finding that glucosamine synthesis in the guinea pig with
the formation of galactosamine was normal in those animals receiving
vitamin C but did not take place in the presence of acute scurvy.

Ascorbic acid when taken in sufficient quantities
will relieve the intraocular pressure in the glaucomatous eyes,
will relieve such things as prickly heat, and is a positive reversal
for pemphigus. Vitamin C when given by needle will destroy all
viruses and many can be destroyed by taking --25-30 gm each day
by mouth. Lesser amounts will protect against these pathogens.
I have cured diptheria, hemolytic streptococcus and staphylococcus
infections by employing vitamin C intravenously in a dose range
of 500 to 700 mg/kg body weight. Doses under 400 mg/kg body weight
can be given with a syringe using the sodium salt. This will always
produce thirst. Fluids taken just before or immediately after
will eliminate this annoyance. Doses above 400 mg/kg body weight
must be diluted to at least 1 gm to 18 cc solution, using 5 percent
dextrose in water, saline in water, or ringer's solution. One
gram calcium gluconate must be added to these bottle infections
to replace Ca ions pulled from the calcium-pro thrombin complex. There
is no limit to the amount that can be administered by vein when
honoring these precautions. The use of vitamin C in cancer will
prove to be a very beneficial agent. We recommend bottle doses
containing 60 gmvitamin C and such fractions of the B
complex as 500 mg thiamin HCL, pyridoxine 300 mg calcium pantothenate
400 mg, riboflavin 100 mg and niacinamide 300 mg. This is to be
given daily or even twice daily. Vitamin C is a positive neutralizing
agent in snake bite [53] , spider bite [54] and insect stings.
Our use of ascorbic in snake bite was limited to the Highland moccasin,
a member of the copperhead family. Other poisonous snakes are
more deadly but we can easily calculate from our experience what
dose to employ. In a 4 year old receiving a full strike from a
mature Highland moccasin, 12 gm was required. Unlike a virus that
will continue production until completely destroyed, the venom
of the snake is constant in that there is no later increase
in amount. I would suggest 40-60 gm, as a starter, in a large
diamondback or cottonmouth. Additional vitamin C can be given
if needed since the patient will be well on the road to recovery
with the first injection.

Adenosine monophosphate given with ascorbic acid
will increase the potential of the vitamin. This can be given
in doses from 25 mg in children to as much as 200 mg in adults.
Our use of this agent has been limited to mumps and herpes zoster
but we are now of sufficient knowledge to believe that its use
should be routine. The aqueous solution is more efficacious than
the gel. Some patients experience a fullness in the head, a sickish
feeling in the chest and a slowed pulse rate. Aromatic spirits
of ammonia as a smelling agent relieves or prevents this syndrome.
At present we are using 50 mg doses more frequently, until we
can establish a reason for this type response.

Ascorbic acid can be lifesaving in shock. Twelve
grains of the sodium salt given with a 50 cc syringe will reverse
shock in minutes. In barbiturate poisoning and monoxide poisoning
the results are so dramatic that it borders on malpractice to
deny this therapy. Surgeons must learn to employ ascorbic acid
more liberally. Ten to twenty grams in the preoperative solutions
and 10 gm in each postoperative bottle will all but eliminate
surgical deaths and will reduce hospital stay by 50 percent. The
same can be said for obstetrical cases. We found that obstetrical
cases needed 4 gm each day the first trimester, 6 gm the
second trimester and 8-10 gm the third trimester. Fifteen percent
of the patients required 15 gm each day just to stay within normal
limits.

Ascorbic acid is the safest and the most valuable
substance available to the physician. Many headaches and many
heartaches will be avoided with its proper use.

Why Review the Scientific Literature?

Proper basic nutrition is an essential foundation for health,
but there's a growing awareness that it's not enough. One has
only to consider the high disease rates in our society - infectious
diseases are now the third largest killer in the US as well as
the first in the world, and our rates of cancer, arthritis, and
mental illness are not abating - to realize that we have to go
beyond basic nutrition in combating disease. It's time to look
at supplemental nutrients in a serious light, in order to better
understand their role in helping our natural immune defenses prevent
disease, and in altering the course of disease as well.

People talk about orthodox medicine and alternative medicine as
if there's a great divide between the two, but there's really
no need for such a dichotomy. The bottom line in healing and in
maintaining health is really the question, What works?
and we should feel free to ask it in evaluating the offerings
of both realms, and to combine the best of both. After all, the
evidence that something works - not the label you give it - is
the important factor in evaluating whether a given treatment,
or mode of prevention, is of value.

Following is a review of the scientific literature as it pertains
to the impact of vitamin C on cancer. The questions, What works?
and How might it be applied? were the motivational
ones behind this review. As this one does, each review will include
only well-designed studies from peer-reviewed journals. Original
journal citations are given, along with capsule descriptions of
the original scientific abstracts.

In other words, what follows is not anecdotal evidence; it is
scientific evidence. We can now move beyond the stage of allowing
quackbusters, apologists for special interest groups, and other
adherents of the flat-earth school of intellectual inquiry to
maintain that there's no evidence of the disease-fighting value
of nutrients. Because, quite simply, there is, and here it is.

This review article notes that approximately 90 studies
have been done on the role of vitamin C in cancer prevention,
with most finding statistically significant effects. Protective
effects have been shown for cancers of the pancreas, oral cavity,
stomach, esophagus, cervix, rectum, breast, and lung.

Daily supplementation of 1g of vitamin C decreased
the amount of chromosome damage induced in lymphocytes by an exposure
to bleomycin during the last 5 h of cell culture. The authors
suggest a similar assay for genetic instability might be helpful
in detecting heterozygotes for chromosome-breakage syndromes and
recommend considering dietary and lifestyle factors when interpreting
results from this bleomycin assay and related assays for genetic
instability.

A ternary antioxidant vitamin mix consisting of ascorbic
acid, alpha-tocopherol and lecithin as well as a rosemary extract
with carnosic acid and carnosol as the two major active ingredients
were shown to exhibit strong antimutagenic effects in Ames tester
strain TA102. Ascorbic acid was held responsible for this inhibitory
property in the vitamin mix, while carnosic acid was identified
as the antimutagenic agent in the rosemary extract. The authors
conclude that these antioxidants might exhibit anticarcinogenic
properties.

A mixture of ascorbic acid and cupric sulfate significantly
inhibited human mammary tumor growth in mice when administered
orally, while the administration of either alone did not. The
activity of D-isoascorbic acid was similar to that of ascorbic
acid. The authors suggest ascorbic acid's antitumor activity was
due to its chemical properties rather than the metabolism of ascorbic
acid as a vitamin.

This study found that ascorbic acid intake affects
in vivo N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea (ENU) mutagenicity in rats. The
authors suggest that previously reported antioxidant inhibitory
effects on carcinogenesis could be partially mediated by its effects
on mutagenesis.

This paper reports the discovery of a new malignant
human T-cell line Ð labeled PFI-285 in a boy with malignant
lymphoma. One of the striking characteristics of this new T-cell
line was its sensitivity to ascorbic acid, evidenced by the fact
that concentrations as low as 50 mumuol/l resulted in cell death
within hours.

The survival rate of mice bearing P388 leukemia and
Ehrlich carcinoma was increased after treatment with a mixture
of vitamins C and B12. All the mice receiving the vitamins outlived
the control group. At the termination of the experiment 30 days
later, 50% of the treated mice appeared normal and healthy, whereas
the remainder showed signs of tumor distention.

This study found that a daily dose of 50 mg/kg of
vitamin C in combination with methylcholanthrene (MCA) over 9
months significantly reduced MCA-induced squamous cell carcinomas
in mice and basal cell carcinomas in rats over a period of nine
months. The authors conclude that vitamin C˜s antineoplastic
effects are the result of increasing autophagic and cytolytic
activity, increased collagen synthesis, and cell membrane disruption.

Previous studies have found that nitrosation can
be decreased by the administration of ascorbic acid in vivo and
that vitamin C-rich foods are inversely related to gastric cancer.
This study treated 62 high risk patients for gastric cancer with
1g of ascorbic acid taken 4 times a day for four weeks. Results
found that ascorbic acid given in high doses can reduce the intragastric
formation of nitrite and N-nitroso compounds.

1000 mg/kg of ascorbic acid in combination with mitomycin
and 5-fluorouracil significantly inhibited tumor growth in mice
implanted with Lewis lung carcinoma cells relative to mice treated
with mitomycin and 5-fluorouracil in the absence of ascorbic acid
or animal that received only ascorbic acid alone.

This study found that 1 or 5g/liter of ascorbic acid
in the drinking water significantly inhibited the growth of human
mammary tumor fragments implanted beneath the renal capsule of
immunocompetent mice. Mice fed a diet including 50g/kg ascorbic
acid and 18 or 90 mg/liter of cupric sulfate in the drinking water
also experienced inhibited tumor growth. The authors conclude
ascorbic acid contains specific oxidation and degradation products
that serve as antineoplastic agents for human mammary carcinoma.

This study found that guinea pigs fed high vitamin
C diets experienced a significantly less mutagenic effect after
being injected with K2Cr207 than those fed a vitamin C-deficient
diet. Vitamin C-deficient animals also suffered greater mutagenic
and toxic effects from hexavalent chromium. High vitamin C-guinea
pigs experienced no mutagenic effects in the bone marrow or changes
in microsomal enzymes in the liver following exposure to bichromate.
In interpreting their results, the authors suggest that vitamin
C˜s protective effects likely consist in the enhanced extracellular
and intracellular reduction of hexavalent chromium in the less
toxic and less mutagenic trivalent chromium.

In this study, ascorbic acid deficiencies in guinea
pig were found to change leukocyte morphology and significantly
interfere with the bactericidal effectiveness of circulating leukocytes
against ingested, cell-associated, and extracellular bacterial
cells of Actinomyces viscosus. Adding vitamin C can reverse this
activity.

This review article points out the importance of
vitamin C, as well as vitamins A and E, as regulators of cancer
cell differentiation, cell regression, membrane biogenesis, DNA,
RNA, protein, and collagen synthesis, as well as transformation
of precancer cells into cancer cells. Vitamins C, A, and E can
reverse the cancer cell to the normal phenotype and possess cytotoxic
and cytostatic effects.

This study found that mice consuming distilled water
suffered from tumor growth after being injected with Ehrlich ascites
tumor cells at a rate significantly faster than those consuming
0.1% ascorbic acid in distilled water.

- F.A. Tewfik, et al., The Influence of Ascorbic
Acid on the Growth of Solid Tumors in Mice and on Tumor Control
by X-Irradiation, International Journal of Vitamin and Nutrition
Research Suppl.,23, 1982, p. 257-263.

This comprehensive review article cites numerous
studies supporting ascorbic acid as having protective effects against
cancer and recommends that it be used in treatment. Clinical trials
over the last ten years are summarized, with the majority of them
supporting this view. The authors predict that supplemental ascorbate
will soon secure an established place in all full-scale therapeutic
programs for cancer.

This study reported on two sets of Japanese clinical
trials involving the use of supplemental ascorbate to treat terminal
cancer patients. The first trial found average survival time of
high ascorbate patients was 246 compared to 43 days for low ascorbate
patients. Results of the second trial were similar, with high
ascorbate patients surviving an average of 115 days compared to
48 days for those in the low ascorbate group.

- A. Murata, et al., Prolongation of Survival Times
of Terminal Cancer Patients by Administration of Large Doses of
Ascorbate, International Journal of Vitamin and Nutrition Research
Suppl., 23, 1982, p. 103-113.

This study demonstrated the effectiveness of ascorbic
acid as a blocking agent in vivo and in vitro to N-Nitroso compounds,
which can lead to cancer of the stomach.

Ascorbic acid and dehydroascorbic acid have both
been shown to favor ATP C+ cell multiplication in vitro at low
doses and inhibit it at high doses. Ascorbic acid was found to
be more effective in determining both sets of effects than dehydroascorbic
acid. Fractioned rather than single administration of both substances
proved to the most efficient method for inhibiting cell multiplication.

This study found that catecholamine-positive neuroblastoma
cell line SK-N-SH was inhibited by high doses of ascorbic acid
as were LS cells and catecholamine-negative SK-N-LO, albeit to
a smaller extent.

This study examined the effects of vitamin C on the
efficacy and adverse effects of drug 864T in Ehrlich ascites carcinoma
(EAC) cells in vivo. Results demonstrated that vitamin C both
potentiates the anticancer effect of 864T as well as helps to
counteract the drug's adverse effects.

This study documents the case of one patient given
large doses of ascorbic acid with indomethacin who consequently
experienced a slow tumor resolution that has continued for 14
months. Similar effects were seen in a second patient receiving
the same treatment.

This comparative study of normal and malignant conditions
in humans and in mice found that serum levels of vitamin C were
lower in all human malignant cases relative to controls. With
respect to mice, results showed that vitamin C and vitamin A supplementation
administered at the start of tumor development reduced both tumor
take and rate of growth and prolonged host survival relative to
controls.

- J. Ghosh and S. Das, Evaluation of Vitamin A and
C Status in Normal and Malignant Conditions and Their Possible
Role in Cancer Prevention, Japanese Journal of Cancer Research,
76(12), December 1995, p. 1174-1178.

This study compared 294 incurable patients treated
with supplemental ascorbate with 1,532 untreated patients who
served as controls over a 4.5 year period. The median survival
time of the ascorbate group was 343 days compared to 180 days
for the controls.

Noting that previous studies have found ascorbic
acid and its salts to be toxic to tumor cells in vitro and in
vivo, this study presents data showing that ascorbic acid plasma
levels can be sustained above levels toxic to tumor cells in vitro.
The authors argue that ascorbic acid's cytotoxic properties should
qualify it for consideration as a chemotherapeutic agent.

This article examined the results and methodology
of a controversial case-control study involving the treatment
of 100 incurable patients with 10g a day of vitamin C. The study
has received criticism for not being conducted on a randomized,
double-blind basis (out of ethical considerations). Instead, test
cases were studied against historical controls. Results found
that patients receiving vitamin C outlived controls by an average
of 255 days (671%). This author considers the various criticisms
the study has received, yet concludes that vitamin C is likely
to have increased survival time an average of 100% in cancer patients
who had failed to respond to previous treatments.

This paper reports on the case of a 42 year-old man
suffering from reticulum cell sarcoma who experienced two complete
spontaneous regressions following the intravenous administration
of high doses of ascorbate in 1975.

- A. Campbell, et al., Reticulum Cell Sarcoma:

Two Complete Spontaneous Regressions, in Response
to High-Dose Ascorbic Acid Therapy. A Report on Subsequent Progress,

- Oncology (1991) 48(6), 1991, p. 495-497.

This study looked at vitamin C's effects on methylcholanthrene-induced
local malignant sarcomas in mice. Results found that doses of
6, 25 and 35 mg/day of vitamin C five times weekly for 20 weeks
offered significant prevention against the induction of sarcomas
relative to controls.

This review article cites immunological studies documenting
ascorbic acid's ability to induce immunity in mice against certain
types of cancer. The authors argue that ascorbate works as an
effective thiolprive in oxygenated cancer tissues which is primarily
responsible for its immunological effects.

- F.E. Knock, et al., Ascorbic Acid as a Thiolprive:
Ability to Induce Immunity Against Some Cancers in Mice,

Physiol Chem Phys, 13(4), 1981, p. 325-333.

This study found that combinations of vitamin C and
cisplatin lead to the regression of Dalton's lymphoma tumor activity
in mice, which resulted in significantly increased host survival.

This study found that the administration of 8g/day
over 8-10 days before starting chemotherapy with cytostatics decreased
p-hydroxyphenyl lactic acid (pHPLA) excretion in leukemia patients.
Mice given 5 mg, 2x/wk, sc, 5wk of pHPLA with 250 mg/100 ml of
ascorbic acid were also found to experience a reduction in the
incidences of hepatoma, leukemia and bladder cancer. Based on
these results, the authors argue that pHPLA carcinogenesis is
inhibited by ascorbic acid.

This study showed that treatment with vitamin C and
chlorophyllin significantly reduced cytotoxicity and the rate
of 6-sulfooxymethyl benzo[a]pyrene (SMBP) induced mutagenicity
in animal and bacterial cell cultures.

- A.S. Chung and Y.S. Cho, Antimutagenicity of Vitamin
C and Chlorophyllin on 6-sulfooxymethyl benzo[a]pyrene in Salmonella
Typhimurium and V79 Cell Line, Proceedings of the Annual Meeting
of the American Association of Cancer Researchers, 36, 1995, A755.

Rat liver carcinogenesis was found to be inhibited
by vitamin C and vitamin E derivatives in this study when administered
at concentrations of 0.01, 0.05 or 0.10% for 12 weeks. Among the
four vitamin derivatives administered, 2-O-octadecylascorbic acid
(CV3611) proved to be the most effective.

In this study, Metha tumor cell proliferation was
found to be inhibited in vitro after simultaneous exposure to
diethyldithiocarbamate (DDC) (1 to approx 2x10(-7) and ascorbic
acid (1 to approx 5x10(-5)M). The two substances were able to
inhibit tumor proliferation at slightly lower doses when cells
were pretreated at 37¡C for one hour. In a mouse injected
with 2 million tumor cells, 25 mg or 50 mg of ascorbic acid and
10 mg of DDC was also observed to inhibit tumor growth.

- H. Mashiba and K. Matsunaga, Inhibition of Metha
Tumor Cell Proliferation in Vitro and Tumor Inhibiton of Metha
Tumor Cell Proliferation in Vitro and Tumor Growth in Combined
Use of Diethyldithiocarbamate with Ascorbic Acid, Proceedings
of the Annual Meeting of the American Association of Cancer Researchers,
33, 1992, A2649.

This study of ultraviolet light-induced malignant
skin tumors and other lesions in hairless mice found that animals
fed a standard diet including L-ascorbic acid experienced significantly
less malignant lesions as well as significant delays in those
that did develop relevant to controls.

- W.B. Dunham, et al., Effects of Intake of L-ascorbic
Acid on the Incidence of Dermal Neoplasms Induced in Mice by Ultraviolet
Light, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 79(23),
December 1982, p. 7532-7536.

This study found that vitamin C prevented cigarette
smoke-induced leukocyte adhesion to micro and macrovascular endothelium
and leukocyte-platelet aggregate formation in mice.

Percentages of L-ascorbic acid contained in food
ranging from 0.076% to 8.3% were studied for their effects on
spontaneous mammary tumors in mice. Results showed that as ascorbic
acid dosages were increased, significant decreases occurred in
the first-order appearance tumors after lag time detection by
palpation when compared to controls.

- L. Pauling, et al., Effect of Dietary Ascorbic
Acid on the Incidence of Spontaneous Mammary Tumors in RIII Mice,
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 82(15), August
1985, p. 5185-5189.

In this study, 6-deoxy-6-bromo-ascorbic acid (6-Br-AA)
in concentrations 10(-1) to 10(-8)M and incubated for periods
of 2, 18, 24 and 72 hours was found to greatly inhibit the growth
and DNA synthesis of melanoma cells in mice and was confirmed
by in vivo experiments. Mice given 9 mg of 6-Br-AA three times
daily for 16 days experienced tumor-suppressing effects on solid
melanoma.

This study found that ascorbic acid incubation is
cultured stomach cancer surgery specimens resulted in a 50-90%
increase in the rate of 5-fluorouracil incorporation into RNA
of 5-fluorouracil-sensitive stomach tumors and in an approximately
50% increase of the rate of 5-fluorouracil-resistant tumors.

This study showed that injections of ascorbic acid
before onset and at the start of tumor development decreased blood
and urine 3-oxyanthranilic acid-antigen levels down to its eventual
elimination from the body in rats and mice. Such activity was
found to prevent the subsequent development of hepatoma.

This study found that cancer patients suffered from
a decreased level of ascorbic acid relative to non-cancer patients
in addition to showing that such decreases correlated with an
increase in blood concentrations of malonic and pyruvic acids.
When cancer patients were given 1.5 g of ascorbic acid daily over
a period of 7 days, blood levels of ascorbic acid returned to
almost normal and lactate and pyruvate levels exhibited a decrease.
In addition to these changes, ascorbic acid deficiencies were
found to result in an increased risk of postoperative complications.
This risk was decreased by increasing the levels of ascorbic acid
in the blood of deficient patients.

The effect of high doses of ascorbic acid (100 mg/kg
daily) on tyrosine metabolism and clinical course of acute lymphoblastic
leukemia was studied in nine children. Ascorbic acid administration
was shown to prevent or to considerably lower the excretion of
a blastogenic metabolite of tyrosine Ð p-hydroxyphenylpyruvic
acid. The treatment improved clinical blood count indexes, prevented
hemorrhage and was followed by an earlier onset of complete remission
after chemotherapy. Although chemotherapy suppressed p-hydroxyphenylpyruvic
acid excretion, its level was inordinately high as late as on
day 12. It is concluded that although the effects of ascorbic
acid and cytostatic drugs on p-hydroxyphenylpyruvate hydroxylase
level are similar, that of ascorbic acid is more specific and
is followed by a complete recovery of tyrosine metabolism.

This review article looked at 12 case-control studies
on the relationship between breast cancer and diet. The most consistently
significant inverse association found was between vitamin C and
breast cancer risk.

This review article cites results from several studies
documenting the protective effects of vitamin C in reducing the
risk of cervical cancer. One, in particular, found that women
with the highest levels of dietary vitamin C decreased their chances
of developing cervical cancer by 4-5 times compared to those with
the lowest levels.

- J. VanEenwyk, The Role of Vitamins in the Development
of Cervical Cancer, The Nutrition Report, 11(1), January 1993,
p. 1-8.

Dietary vitamin C was found to be protective against
cervical intraepithelial neoplasia in this case-control study.